If the phrase “that wizard came from the moon” means something to you, then you’ve probably been around since vanilla Destiny. In which case, you know that the original looter-shooter, dubbed Destiny 1, went through multiple expansions and never quite settled on a suitable framework — never a good sign for a fledgling MMO. Toss in the infighting between Bungie and Activision at the time, and Destiny initially seemed destined for failure.

Yet somehow, against all the odds, Bungie managed to stave off defeat, releasing Destiny 2 in September of 2017.

But there was more bad news on the horizon. While Destiny 2 retained the incredibly tight and practical shooting mechanics the Halo developer was known for, the dev team seemingly forgot all the progress they made with the original Destiny. The game was grindier than ever, the Crucible never felt balanced, and while the story was an improvement, it was very short.

Destiny 2

And then… boom! Bungie and Activision separated, and Bungie released The Forsaken Expansion, breathing new life into the title. Bungie also began actively focusing on the needs of the community, reintroducing Trials of Osiris, and adding a handful of additional PVE and PVP modes and events.

Now, Bungie is charting their own course towards success. The weapon, class, and equipment meta is becoming more and more refined with regular changes every week. And new content is focused on both cooperative and competitive play, ensuring an exciting mix of updates for all types of players.

If you’ve been hesitant to give Destiny 2 a shot, or are a lapsed player who just hated the grind, now is the best time to revisit the Tower. We’ve put together these go-to PC and console settings to help you harness the light of the traveler and become your enemies’ worst nightmare.

Best Destiny 2 PC Settings

Destiny 3

It took a bit longer to make its way to PC, but for many, it was well worth the wait. Destiny 2 is a gorgeous and well-optimized game for PC as long as you have the necessary build to run it. Before diving into specific settings changes, you’ll want to be sure you meet the minimum and even the recommended PC requirements to achieve optimal performance.

Minimum Requirements

  • CPU: Intel Core i3, Intel Pentium G4560, or AMD FX-4350
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 660, GTX 1050, or AMD Radeon HD 7850
  • RAM: 6GB
  • Hard Drive Space: 104GB
  • Operating System: Windows 7, 8, or 10

Recommended Requirements

  • CPU: Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen R5
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970, GTX 1060, or AMD R9 390
  • RAM: 8GB
  • Hard Drive Space: 104GB
  • Operating System: Windows 10

Best Destiny 2 Mouse Settings for PC

Destiny Mouse Settings

Let’s take a look at the best baseline to start with for your mouse settings. 

DPI: 400 – 800

As with most FPS titles, the sweet spot for most professional Destiny 2 streamers is in the 400-800 range. With the shooting mechanics being so tight and fluid, you can opt for slightly higher DPI to start with and adjust from there.

Polling Rate: 1000Hz

You’ll want to find a polling rate that compliments your DPI and sensitivity settings. Start with 1000Hz, and adjust the setting based on your mouse performance.

Look Sensitivity: 4 – 6

As we said before, Destiny 2 is designed with incredibly solid shooting mechanics at its core, meaning that accuracy can be retained at higher sensitivity settings. Start in this range and push it higher as long as it complements your DPI and accuracy.

ADS Sensitivity Modifier: 1.0

Keep this at 1 to retain the sensitivity settings you set up between your mouse and in-game settings.

Vertical and Horizontal Inversion: Custom

Keep this off unless you’re used to inverted controls.

Aim Smoothing: Off

Acting somewhat like aim assist, keep this off to improve your skillset.

Best Destiny 2 Keybinds for PC

Destiny Keybinds

Destiny 2’s control scheme was designed, first and foremost, with controllers in mind. While it does have one of the best controller keybind setups around, it’ll take a bit of work to get there on keyboard and mouse. Here are our go-to Settings.

  • Movement: WASD
  • Finisher: Mouse Button 5
  • Push-To-Talk: T
  • Return to Orbit / Abort: O
  • Fire: L Mouse Button
  • Reload: R
  • Melee: C
  • Aim Down Sights: R Mouse Button
  • Light Attack: L Mouse Button
  • Heavy Attack: R Mouse Button
  • Block: C
  • Jump: Space Bar
  • Toggle Sprint: L Shift
  • Toggle Crouch: L Ctrl
  • Class Ability: E
  • Air Move: X
  • Interact: V
  • Grenade: Q
  • Super: F
  • Primary Weapon: 1
  • Special Weapon: 2
  • Heavy Weapon: 3
  • Switch Weapon: ~
  • Weapon Scroll: Mouse Wheel

Best Destiny 2 Graphics Settings for PC

Bungie is known for creating visually impressive games. Destiny 2 takes that up a notch with gorgeous backdrops, elegant lighting effects, and varied landscapes across each exploitable planet. With Destiny being a less competitive title, there is room to opt for higher settings on visual elements. That said, you’ll absolutely need to meet the minimum PC requirements to make this work.

Video Settings

Destiny Graphics 1

Window Mode: Full Screen

Maximize your frames per second by opting into full screen. Boundless or windowed provide other optional benefits, but full screen is best for maximizing frames.

Resolution: 1920 x 1080

For buttery smooth gameplay and the highest FPS, opt for this setting. If you have a 4K monitor, you can push the resolution a bit, but you’ll need powerful hardware to make sure it runs effectively.

VSync: Off

Keep this setting off to avoid screen tearing and input lag.

Frame Rate Cap (Enabled): Off

Keep this off to allow your PC to push for as many frames as possible.

Framerate Cap: 144+

This will automatically populate based on your monitor and PC. If you can, find a combo that hits at least a max of 144Hz.

Field of View: 103 – 105

Expand the FOV just a bit to gain some additional peripheral views without sacrificing mid-screen clarity. Only drop this lower than 103 if you’re struggling to maintain a stable frame rate.

Screen Bounds: Custom

The best option is to fit your screen, but how you set up your display is entirely up to you.

Brightness: Custom

The default brightness is good enough to keep unless you have a difficult time seeing enemies in darker rooms and caverns. That said, the PVP maps are all well lit shouldn’t need many adjustments.

Advanced Video Settings

Destiny Graphics 2

Graphics Quality: Custom

Switch this to custom to access more advanced video settings.

Anti-Aliasing: FXAA

Gain back a couple of frames by opting for the FXAA setting while retaining graphical smoothness.

Screen Space Ambient Occlusion: Off

This setting provides contact shadows when two in-game assets meet or interact, basically meaning that on a pixel by pixel basis, it will look more realistic. With Destiny being such a fast-paced and kinetic game, you won’t notice this being off and will reap some significant framerate benefits.

Texture Anisotropy: 8x

Known as anisotropic filtering in other titles, this setting allows for more realistic textures to appear at complex angles. Opting for the 8x setting will assure that your PC isn’t straining to pop in these textures and that they don’t look muddled.

Texture Quality: Highest

Unless you’re dying for frames, you can go ahead and choose the highest texture quality option.

Shadow Quality: Lowest

This makes shadows look more realistic and is a huge performance drain. Go for the low setting to maintain frames.

Depth of Field: Off

Leaving this setting on adds realistic blurring effects to long-distance assets. Keep this off to maintain visual clarity at any viewing distance and save a few frames.

Environment Detail Distance: High

You can keep this at the highest setting to retain those gorgeous backdrops without sacrificing frames.

Character Detail Distance: Medium – High

This setting increases the detail on character models in both PVP and PVE. High is the best option to distinguish enemy characters from the background, but you can choose medium if you need to save some frames.

Foliage Detail Distance: Low

Keep this setting on low, as it adds unnecessary detail to in-game foliage and can be a major performance drain.

Foliage Shadow Distance: Medium

Similar to the last setting, you’ll want to keep this as low as possible.

Light Shafts: Low – Medium

This adds realistic god rays to the game and can cause a dip in framerate at higher settings. Start with low and only bump up to medium if you have frames to spare. 

Motion Blur: Off

Keep this off to maintain clarity when running and aiming downs sites.

Wind Impulse: On

This allows for wind from various in-game impacts to affect foliage. You can keep this one on without any performance dips.

Additional Video Settings

Destiny Graphics 3

Render Resolution: 100%

Keep this at the maximum setting and only drop to a minimum of 90% if you’re experiencing consistent screen tearing and frame rate drops.

HDR: Automatic

If you have an HDR display, this will automatically turn on.

Chromatic Aberration: Off

Another lighting effect that adds a touch of realism. This one is optional, but we recommend turning it off for a slight boost in overall performance.

Film Grain: Off

This is a cinematic effect that has no real impact on performance but can become a visual distraction.

Best Destiny 2 Console Settings

Destiny 2 Console

The original home for Destiny and Destiny 2, you can tell that Bungie designed the title to optimize for current-gen consoles. This means that, quite often, the defaults are perfectly fine. That said, there are a few tweaks to make here and there.

Best Destiny 2 Controller Settings for Console

Destiny 2 Controller Settings

You won’t be able to bind specific buttons on the console version, but the available presets are so reliable that it eliminates the need, even if it was available.

Most players run with the Puppeteer button layout, which changes the crouch function over to R3 for effortless movement and sliding when running. Everything else about the preset should feel very familiar and comfortable for most players.

Look Sensitivity: 6

Destiny 2 with a controller screams refinement and quick movement. You’ll be able to start with a slightly higher sensitivity and adjust from there without any problem.

Horizontal and Vertical Inversion: Custom

Only switch to inverted controls if you’re used to this playstyle.

Controller Vibration: Off

Keep this setting off to avoid any severe disruptions when firing.

Auto-lock Targeting: Off

Switch this to off to work on improving your aim without assistance.

Best Destiny 2 Video Settings for Console

Destiny 4

Unlike the PC version, the video settings options on console are virtually non-existent aside from brightness and simple colorblind settings. That said, Bungie has a history with console games exclusively and understands how to optimize a game to take advantage of current hardware.

It may not be as pretty as on PC, but it will still look fantastic for a 3-year old multi-platform title.

Best Destiny 2 Audio Settings for PC and Console

Destiny 2 Audio Settings

The audio settings between PC and console are virtually the same and follow the same basic setup for optimization. Here’s what we recommend to maintain in-game clarity and quickly identify audio cues when in firefights.

  • Voice Output Settings: Headset Only
  • SFX Volume: 10
  • Dialogue/Cinematics Volume: 7 
  • Music Volume: 0
  • Chat Volume: 8

These are pretty simple settings, but by eliminating music and cranking up SFX and Chat to resonate within your headset, you’ll have a better chance at understanding audio and chat cues without distraction.

Putting it to Practice

Destiny 1

Destiny 2 is designed around optimization and meant to look and feel incredibly fluid. The console version reflects this with its lack of customization, showing that Bungie is incredibly proud of their setup. They’re also dedicated to making regular balance changes to provide a better experience for the Destiny Community. 

The PC version, on the other hand, allows for enough customization to gain back a few frames. But like the console version, the default blend of visual fidelity and performance really showcases the sound design choices that the folks at Bungie made.

While the title wasn’t perfect at launch, it’s now fully in the (very capable) hands of its creators. And with their dedication and willingness to support it, the original (and possibly best) live service title will only continue to improve.

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